Deontay Wilder’s former co-trainer Mark Breland has finally broken his silence after being a target of some of the former WBC heavyweight champion’s wild allegations in the wake of his comprehensive seven-round loss to Tyson Fury a year ago.
It’s fair to say Wilder didn’t take defeat well with ‘The Bronze Bomber’ subsequently firing off a series of eyebrow-raising excuses including a heavy outfit on his ring walk and tampered gloves on his opponent while blaming Breland for ‘spiking his water’ and showing ‘disloyalty’ by throwing the towel in to end a one-sided beatdown.
Refusing to take responsibility for his first loss, Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) later sacked Breland in a move that appalled many seasoned boxing observers. For almost a year, former two-time world welterweight champion Breland has kept a dignified silence until finally revealing his thoughts on the toxic post-fight fall-out on ‘The Fight is Right’ podcast.
“Some people can’t take a loss, if you lose, you lose. Don’t blame everybody, go back and think about yourself,” said Breland. “Come on now, only foolish people come out with stuff like that because it’s crazy.
“My whole thing with Deontay is part of boxing I guess. His career is over now, I’m done and he’s done. I’m done with him. Wilder only has his power and we’ll see how far that takes him. That’s all I’m going to say. I wish him well and that’s it.
“So many people know me, my character speaks for itself. If you’re looking at tapes or whatever and stuff like that, you don’t ever see water in my hands. And regardless of that, I’m there to help you. My attitude is, ‘When you win, I win,’” Breland told The Fight Is Right.
“I doubt it very much [that Fury’s team tampered with his gloves], but at the same time, he ain’t going to beat Tyson Fury. [Wilder’s head trainer] Jay Deas was standing right there when the man was getting his hands wrapped. If they put something in there, either Jay’s blind or … Jay is right there when he’s getting his hands wrapped and he didn’t say anything. But to be honest, that’s how much he knows about boxing. Hell, he probably could’ve put a cast up in there and he wouldn’t have known.”
Not holding back, Breland then laid bare Wilder’s training regime, claiming the former heavyweight champion has got by on chilling power, rather than pain-staking preparation.
“He don’t jump rope, he don’t hit the speed bag and he don’t hit the heavy bag,” stated Breland. “If I boxed the guys he boxed, I’d beat them. That’s the bottom line. You say he had some ‘good wins’? A good win. Just that [first Luis Ortiz] fight, that was it.”